Springtime in Maine – May 2023 – The Traveling Lounsburys

This is our first time spending spring in Maine and it has been a delightful experience. As I look through the last month of photos, I realize I am still drawn to the scenery, mostly the ocean, and flowers of the area. But spring does bring a number of differences that last summer and fall do not.

Spring “Downeast” – We took a few trips “downeast”, which is NE of us. Downeast is a term from sailing days when the summer winds would blow the ships NE “up” the coast, but since the wind was from their back, they called it “downeast”. Downeast is the area from Ellsworth NE up to Lubec and Eastport, on the border of Canada.

Pretty much any scenic area or small town from Bangor across to Ellsworth and Downeast to Canada had a large granite sculpture. I’ve been capturing them as I see them in our travels and you will see a few in the following photos.

Corea Harbor
Corea Lobster Traps Ready for Action – the traps get set starting mid-May and all of June
Roque Bluffs State Park near Machias
Roque Bluffs Granite Statue – check out the cloud above. It looks like a heart!
Jasper Beach near Machias
Jasper Rocks
Eastport Fisherman – Eastport is considered the most eastern city in the continental US
‘Eastport Harbor – low tide, where the tide can be up to 20’Eastport Harbor – low tide, where the tide can be up to 20 feet
Eastport Granite Statue
Eastport Harbor with Canada in the background

Caribou, Fort Kent, Madawaska Maine: We took a trip to the northern tip of Maine, bordered by the St. John River separating New Brunswick and Quebec from Maine. Madawaska is considered one of the four corners being the furtherest NE point of the USA with Fort Kent being the actual northern starting point for Highway 1.

In 1983 the Southern California Motorcycle Association decided to sponsor a “Motorcycle Tour”. Motorcyclists who would like to attempt the tour register at the www.usa4corners.org, receive their tour package and begin their adventure. The four official checkpoints are: Blaine, WA, San Ysidro, CA, Key West, Florida, and Madawaska, ME. Riders are allowed twenty-one days total to complete this event. Submitting your postmarked envelope, provide by the S.C.M.A., at each check point verifies your arrival.

If you are successful with this challenge, you can get an engraved brick with your name, town and date on a paver in the Madawaska Park. I thought we’d been to 3 of the 4 corners, but Cape Flattery, WA is the furthest NW land point, but Blaine, WA must be the furthest NW town, which is just south of Vancouver BC.

Four Corners Park
Fort Kent 1st Mile
Fort Kent historic building
Driving up to Caribou – Mt Katadin in the background
Spring Flowers
Trillium

We’ve also gotten to try a few new things. Our local Artist in Residence, Rachel Singel makes paper out of invasive plant species and then block prints her artwork on the hand-made paper. We participated in her demo, which was quite interesting.

Speaking of trying new things, we finally ate Fiddleheads, basically new growth ferns and Pickled Wrinkles, a periwinkle snail that used to be pickled to save it for a protein source many years ago. Fiddleheads were OK, Pickled Wrinkles were basically a chewy, rubbery, slimey snail that had very little flavor. Perhaps it would have been better deep fried…isn’t everything better that way??

Tom learning to make paper from an invasive species pulp
I believe this is what we ate in the following photo!
Fiddleheads are quite the delicacy in Maine when they are in season
I am not so sure a Pickled Wrinkle is a delicacy, but we tried one and that was enough!
Bluettes from the Forget-Me-Not family
This is not a new thing, but I loved the girls’ expressions as they were being sworn in as Junior Rangers.

Since we are here before the tourist season really takes off on Mount Desert Island, where Bar Harbor and the main part of Acadia are, we have been able to park and hike various places that are very challenging to get into in August & September.